Beto O'Rourke: 'Walls Do Not Save Lives. Walls End Lives'

Beto O'Rourke speaks at a rally called to protest the U.S.-Mexico border wall being pushed by President Donald Trump, who held a nearby rally of his own on February 11, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. (Photo by Christ Chavez/Getty Images)

O'Rourke explained how walls end lives, at a rally near the much larger one President Donald Trump was holding in that same border city:

In the last ten years, more than 4,000 children, women and men have died trying to come to this country, to work jobs that no one will take, to be with a family member, to flee horrific brutality and violence and death in their home countries.

And as we build these walls -- 600 miles of the 2,000-mile border walled up and counting -- we push them to ever more treacherous and remote stretches of the U.S.- Mexico border, thereby ensuring greater suffering and death.

We stand for America, and we stand against walls!

O'Rourke described El Paso as one of the safest cities in the USA:

"Safe, not because of walls, but in spite of walls,” he said. “Secure, because we treat one another with dignity and respect. That is the way we make our communities and our country safe."

(To stress the importance of that point, O'Rourke repeated the words in Spanish.)

"Here -- in the largest bi-national community in the Western hemisphere, two-and-a-half million people, two countries, speaking two languages with two cultures and two histories who come together, are joined, not separated, by the Rio Grande River, forming something far greater and more powerful than the sum of people, or the sum of our parts.

"We have so much to give, so much to show the rest of the country, and we're doing it right now."

Meanwhile, at Trump's rally nearby, the president took a jab at O'Rourke, "a young man who lost an election to Ted Cruz."

"But a young man, who's got very little going for himself, except he's got a great first name -- he challenged us. So we have, let's say 35,000 people tonight, and he has 200 people, 300 people. Not too good!” Trump said.

“In fact…I would say that may be the end of his of his presidential bid."

O’Rourke has not yet announced if he plans to run for president. He’s expected to decide later this month.